Ron Beilke, the controversial former Pico Rivera city councilman who was convicted of conflict of interest for actions while on the council, has filed a lawsuit against Central Basin Municipal Water District claiming he was wrongfully fired in January 2013.

The suit, filed July 23 in Los Angeles Superior Court, comes one year after Beilke filed a claim against the district on July 24, 2013.

The suit alleges that Beilke was fired because he engaged in whistle-blowing, a protected action, during the time he was employed at Central Basin. Beilke was hired on Dec. 27, 2012, and was terminated on Jan 24, 2013.

In that time he was at work six of those days, according to the district.

“Beilke believes that his investigation of the illegal activity (at Central Basin) was the ‘motivating factor’ for (Central Basin’s) decision to terminate him,” the suit states.

According to the suit, in his job as assistant general manager, Beilke was investigating overpayments of public funds and improper payments to consultant Tom Calderon, brother of state Sen. Ron Calderon, D-Montebello, who has been indicted on charges of accepting about $88,000 in bribes.

The suit claims Beilke also investigated sexual harassment by Central Basin Director Robert Apodoca of a female contractor, who later sued Central Basin and Apodoca.

Central Basin recently paid $670,000 to settle the claim.

Telephone calls to Beilke and his attorney were not returned.

The district does not comment on pending litigation, spokesman Joseph Legaspi said in a telephone interview Tuesday.

However, two directors called it a “frivolous” suit.

“Basically, it’s a frivolous lawsuit,” said Director Leticia Vasquez. “The man was employed seven days. He was an at-will employee,” she said in a telephone interview Tuesday.

Under the state labor code, employment with no specified duration is considered “at-will,” meaning in theory that either party can terminate the employment at any time with or without cause, according to the Governor’s Office of Business Development. However, there are exceptions to the rule under the statute and also created by the courts and public policy.

Vasquez said Beilke lied on his application about not having a criminal record. He was convicted of grand theft in 1989 in Los Angeles Superior Court, according to court records.

“It’s a very frivolous case seeking to get money from us,” said Director James Roybal.

“He was hired without going through the regular hiring process,” said Roybal. “All we did was dissolve the position.”